Austin violence snares another teen victim

Police cordon off the area outside the Stop N Save at 5606 W. Chicago Ave. in Chicago after a 14-year-old boy was shot there Tuesday morning. (William DeShazer/Tribune)

Parents, principals, police and the youth who walk the streets of Austin all knew it had been tense lately.

With a recent spate of gang-related shootings, students were walking in pairs and keeping their heads down. Families had warned their children to be extra careful at certain corners.

But the violence caught up with 14-year-old Danny Gilmore on the second school day following spring break for Chicago Public Schools students. He was shot multiple times Tuesday morning as he walked to school.

The freshman at Douglass Academy High School in Austin had just made his regular stop for juice and chips at the Stop N Save convenience store, 5606 W. Chicago Ave., a popular spot for students, when he was shot about 8:15 a.m.

It happened seven months after school officials announced an ambitious plan to stem youth violence, which has claimed 24 public school students this school year.

The plan includes coordinating safe passage for students as they navigate between home and school, a danger zone that gained national attention in September when the beating death of high school student Derrion Albert by a mob on his way home from school was captured on video.

The program is active in 13 Chicago neighborhoods but has not yet been implemented in the Austin neighborhood, on the city's Far West Side.

Still, police and school officials there send marked squads and tactical units to the streets around each of the area's three high schools each weekday morning and afternoon. There was a patrol car about a block from where Danny was shot, and after witnesses pointed to people they believed to be involved, responding officers were able to detain one man, police said.

Danny's shooting illustrates to some what an enormous task it is to guarantee safe passage under any plan.

"Acts like this, that are one-on-one and targeted, are almost tantamount to a domestic (incident)," said Chief of Patrol Roberto Zavala. "You don't know when it is going to erupt. Everything could be OK, (and) all of a sudden it goes bad."

The gunman, who was on foot and approached Danny from behind, appeared to target him, but that also remained under investigation, along with whether it was a case of mistaken identity, law enforcement sources said.